Thursday, January 28, 2010

Jose Marti by Trumbull White January 28 1853

Monumento Jose Mari **escultor Juan Jose Sicre *

Chapter XX JOSE MARTI AND OTHER CUBAN HEROES

When the day comes that Cuba shall take her placeamong the free and independent nation of theearth. Jose Marti, who probably did more than any other one man to arouse the insurgents to make the final struggle for liberty , will not be among then to share their triumphs . Struck down by aSpanish bullet, almost at the commencement of the las revolution , he sleeps beneath the southernskies, and neither the clash of swords not the thunder of the cannot over his grave can distrub his rest. Born in Havana , the son of a Spanish army officer,he was taught from his childwood days that the friendsof Cuba`s cause were rebels, deserving of death.But as he grew older he commenced to think for himself , and the more he learned of Spanish roberry,injustice and cruelty, the more determined he becameto devote his life to the cause of his native land. While yet a mere boy, he began the work He publis-hed clandestine circular , he wrote a play in which hedepicted the wrongs inflicted upon the island people;" Free Cuba". was his thought by day, his dreams atnight.. Through imprisonment and exile, in Spain , Mexico and the United States, every action of his lifewas guided by the one ambition. On April 14 th, 1895, in company with Maximo Gomez, Marti landed on the coast of Cuba , at Cobonico His coming gave the insurgents new courage, and their numbers increased rapidly. He was made a Major Generalof the army, and in company with Gomez , who handsee service in the previous campaign , he led a numberof successful attacks against detachments of the Spanishforces,After organizing an expedition that was to march to Puerto Principe ( Camaguey) under Gomez`s command,Marti intended to go to the seacoasts, in order to returnabroad and continue his work there in favor of the secessionist revolution. About this time a man named Chacon was captured byColonel Sandoval, of the Spanish forces , and letters fromthe rebels were found in his possession, and some moneywhich he was going to make purchases for the insurgent chiefs. This man gave knowledge, Colonel Sandoval, on the19th of May , brought his army to La Brija. The Hernan Cortez squadron , under Captain Capa, was in vanguard , and attacked a band commanded by Bellito , which had cometo meet the column. When Colonel Sandoval heard of it, he avanced up to the plainDos Rios, and ordered his infantry to open fire. A spirited combat ensued, with fatal results to the insurgents , as theSpanish guide , Antonio Oliva, running up to help a soldierwho was surrouded by a large group of the enemy , firedhis rifle at a horseman, who felt to the ground, and was found to be Jose Marti. Captain Enrique Sattie was the first to recognizehim. A flight tool place upon the spot, the rebels trying hard to carry the corpse away , but they were repulsed. Maximo Gomezwas wounded in the encounter which for some days led to belief that he too was dead. According to one narrative, Gomez was inthe the battle from the beginning, and while hurrying to recover the corpse of Marti, he was slightly wounded. Others say that famoun chief had already taken leave of Marti to go Camaguey,when passing, at some distance from Dos Rios, he heard the reportof musketry. He imagined what was happenig, and ran to rescue thecivil chief of the revolution , but when he arrived, Marti had been killed. Gomez being wounded , Borrero took him on his own house,and in this manner carried him to a place of safety. The Spaniards,after their victory moved to Remanganagaus , where the corpseof Marti was embalmed. From the latter town it was taked to Santiagode Cuba , and while on the way there, the troops had to repel an attack from the rebels, who intended to carry off the coffin .On arriving at the city , the remains of Marti were exhibited atthe cementery. Colonel Sandoval presided over the funeral ceremonies,and the dead leader was given a decent reading .

Genthemen - in presence of the corpse of him who in life wasJose Marti, and in the absence of any relative or friend who mightspeaks over his remains such words as are customary , i request you not to consider these remains to be those of an enemy any more, but simply those of a man carried by political discords toface Spanish soldiers. From the moment the spirits have freedthemselves of matter they are sheltered and magnanimously pardoned by the Almighty , and the abandoned matter is leftin our care , for us to dispel all rencorous feelings, and givethe corpse such Christian burial as is due to the dead.

* Juan Jose SicreJuan José Sicre (born Juan José Sicre Velez in 1898 – 1974) was one of the greatest Cuban sculptors. His most famous sculpture is of José Martí y Pérez (1958) (the José Martí Memorial) in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana.Sicre graduated from an art academy in Havana in 1919 and earned an art scholarship to go to Europe where he studied in Madrid at the Fine Arts School of San Fernando in and later under Antoine Bourdelle in Paris, returning to Cuba in 1927.[1]Sicre, along with Gattorno and the painter Victor Manuel introduced European modern art style to Havana, and began Cuba's Modern Art Movement. He regularly contributed to the avant garde magazine, Revista de Avance, which helped to establish a Cuban national identity in the arts from 1927-1934. Sicre became the professor of sculpture at the Academy of San Alejandro.

** Sicre's Statue of MartíHe is best known in Cuba for his huge monuments to José Martí, Simón Bolívar, and Victor Hugo, all located in Havana. He also did statues of Eugenio María de Hostos in the Dominican Republic and of Alexandre Sabès Pétion and the Heroes of the Battle of Vertières in Haiti. In the United States he has a bust of John F. Kennedy at the Inter-American Development Bank. He also has in Washington, DC busts of Henry Clay, José Cecilio del Valle and Rubén Darío at the OAS Building. In Gainesville, Florida, there is a bronze head of Martí at the Center of Latin American Studies of the University of Florida. In Caracas, Venezuela, he produced a monument to Rómulo Gallegos.He was married to Silvia D. Escoubet and their son, Jorge Sicre Escoubet, lived in Cleveland, Ohio and played with the orchestra and his grandson, Jorge Luis Sicre-Gattorno (1958- ), is an accomplished painter in the United States.